GREENFIELD - Even though there has been no final decision on Greenfield opening a virtual school this fall, school officials are still optimistic that they will get the OK from the state, so they have been hard at work to ensure that the school will be able to open.

On July 21, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education passed the commissioner's proposed virtual school regulations that many felt would make it impossible to start the Greenfield school in September.

But, the board also voted to allow the commissioner to rule on the waiver request submitted by Greenfield, asking that some of the provisions in the new rules be waived so it could open its school this fall.

School Committee Chairman John Lunt said on Monday that he is optimistic that they will get the green light to open the virtual school and expects a decision soon.

Lunt said school officials have been talking with Commissioner Mitchell Chester, including giving additional information he requested.

As of Monday afternoon, the commissioner had not made a decision, according to the state education department.

The School Committee has voted to sign a contract with K12, to start a virtual school this fall. The school would serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade and would be open to students statewide and from out of state.

Lunt said if the schools get requests for students in Grades 9 through 12 they will try to accommodate them. The plan is to open up the virtual school to these grades in the second year.

According to Superintendent Susan Hollins' online journal, her office has been creating outreach plans to locate students with cancer, immune deficiencies, severe allergies, unique health issues and other sensitivities that keep them from coming into a school facility during set school hours.

"We are looking for adults who would like to help us identify connections to these students," she said. "I met with someone very involved with Crohn's disease parent support groups this weekend."

She said, in her journal, there are also many students whose health or pregnancy interferes with them getting a public education.

"While the virtual school will be open to anyone, we are particularly interested in students who need this option for a persuasive reason," she said. "These students will have priority."

"We plan to interview every participating family as to why they are not using their district school program," she said.

Lunt echoed this and said that they are now putting together a robust interview and assessment process for potential students.

"We are looking for students not being served right now," he said.

He said the intent of the virtual school is not to pull children out of public school classrooms.

K12 spokesman Jeff Kwitowski said the Greenfield public schools would be responsible for overseeing the accounting and reporting of the virtual school budget, with assistance from K12.

Kwitowski said K12 works in 25 states and Washington, D.C. He said, on average, it costs $6,000 to $6,500 per student for a full-time virtual school program.

According to the state regulations, the sponsoring district, in this case Greenfield, will annually set the per-pupil tuition rate, provided that the rate doesn't exceed the maximum tuition rate permitted under state law. This is $5,000 under the School Choice provision. There are additional costs that may be incurred, for example, for students who receive special education.

Kwitowski said K12 has been aware of this and will work with this figure to provide Greenfield with its program and says it won't affect the quality of the program.

He said the average class size for students in virtual schools is 40 to 60 students.

K12 has a school service division, which helps with the launching of the school and he said K12 is in that process now.

"We are moving full steam ahead," said Jennifer Sims, K12's vice president of academic services, who is helping with launch.

Sims said school starts Sept. 2 and there is a lot of work to be done. She said this includes marketing the program, enrolling students, hiring of teachers and assignment of appropriate courses and shipment of computers and other materials.

She said the teachers will be hired by K12, in collaboration with Greenfield. She said the teachers will be Massachusetts-licensed teachers. She said right now K12 is taking applicants and will hire based on enrollment.

The regulations passed in July say that virtual schools can have a maximum of 500 students and that 25 percent have to be from the sponsoring district.

One of the exceptions of the 25 percent requirement is if a virtual school is intended to serve a specialized population, such as "students at risk of dropping out or students institutionalized in hospitals or correctional facilities," then the 25 percent requirement is reduced to 10 percent.

Hollins said those are the provisions that effectively block a school from opening a virtual school unless it is one of the six or seven largest districts in the state.

Greenfield school officials have asked that the 25 and 10 percent requirements be waived.

Lunt said school officials have told the commissioner that the percent of students from Greenfield that would attend the virtual school would be more around 1 to 2 percent.